Looking out over his submerged city hours before Ike's landfall, Davison said damage would be far worse, especially if winds got over 100 mph or the tide got much higher.

Wearing shorts, a Hawaiian shirt and protective rubber boots, Davison literally led the way for the would-be rescue crew as he waded through water in front of the Mack truck and cleared debris, such as floating wood, tool boxes and barrels.

Police and firefighters who rode in the bed of the high-clearance truck appealed to holdouts to leave in order to save their lives.

Refused to leave home

Moments earlier Friday morning, he had a face to face with
David Fields
and another man who were unwilling to leave.

"Let's grab on and go," Smith told Fields, a carpenter who has lived here six years. "Come back when it is over, that is the thing to do."

Fields declined. "This is my home."

About two hours later, Fields and his wife, Dondi and their dog, Sandy Beach, were ferried to safety in a daring effort involving a Coast Guard boat and a flat-bed military style truck.

Using a black marker and perhaps fearing the worst, Dondi had followed police instructions and written her Social Security number on one arm and a message, "I Love You," to her seven grown children in the event she didn't make it out alive.

Another resident who planned to stay, but after speaking to police quickly decided to kayak out, was 47-year-old Bobby Taylor.

"It's dangerous, but it's Mother Nature. There are good parts about it. It's beautiful. The water doesn't frighten me," Taylor said as waves rolled over his lawn. "It's just water, man."

Covered by noon

Chief Smith said as of noon the entire island was covered with rushing water that, on average, reached chest-deep.

"There's a lot of areas where the water is over our heads already," Smith said.

"I have seen it this bad before, but it was at the worst point of the storm," he said. "This storm hasn't even gotten here yet."

"This is a quaint older town, we have a lot of older homes," she said. "I am worried about them not being built to the standards of today."

As officials sought to shut down the bridge over the Intra-coastal Waterway, the storm surge did it for them, making roadways from any direction impassable.

Headed for higher ground

Surfside Beach surf shop owner
Bingo Cosby
previously vowed he'd ride out Hurricane Ike in living quarters above his business, but by mid-morning he was headed for higher ground.

"They're talking about 15 feet of water," he said from his home in nearby Oyster Creek. He said he was about to load up his three dogs and head for San Antonio. "Man, there's water everywhere," he said.

About five miles away, the captain and crew of a 130-foot commercial deep-sea fishing vessel moored in Freeport vowed to ride out the storm.

"It is just what we do," said Monty Carter, captain of the Big E, which was secured to a pier with more than 1,000 feet of rope.

"I feel safer on this boat than my house; it floats and it is big," he said. "It is going to get hairy tonight, I guarantee it."